The 73rd Hunger Games
by Archon Epsilon
Summary: Caia from District Two is chosen, and the arena is an archipelago.
1. The Arena

**Author's Note: **The characters Clove, Cato, Marvel and Glimmer are mentioned in this story as a relative of Caia, Justane, Gorden and Shimmer.

I step into the tube and stare at my designer. She's waving what might be her final goodbye. Then I feel myself rising slowly. My head peeps out of the tubes, and suddenly I'm realizing that there is water everywhere.  
The tube stops rising and I'm on a platform, in a semi-circle with all the other 24 tributes. There is a noise that sounds like a heartbeat. I look up and see the Cornucopia, on a small island, about a 25 meters away from me. All I see is weapons, but then I try looking into the back of the Cornucopia and see food. There's a lot of other islands too, but who knows what's in there.  
Since there's water surrounding me, there is only one way I can get there. To swim.  
I can hear the timer thing count down, and there's only 20 seconds left. I must decide which weapon I will use. Of course, I've already made up my mind in the training that I've done all these years in District Two. Throwing knives. My inspiration drew from my cousin, Clove. She's a knife throwing expert. Her friend, Cato, is my friend, Justane's cousin.  
I can't see knives yet, but I look to Justane, and he's pointing at something. 10 seconds left, and my eyes follow his point. Knives. He knows I use them, and I'm good at using them.  
Now we're all readying our stance to dive into the water. 5 seconds. I feel my heart beat faster every second. 3 seconds left. I put my foot close to the edge of my metal plate.

The gong rings and I'm swimming freestyle over to the island. I steady myself as I get on the sandy shore, and start sprinting over to my knives. Justane picks up a sword with about 3 blades, for some reason, and starts slashing away at the other tributes.  
I pick up my knives. They're all in a pocket like thing, sticking onto a belt. There's two to the pockets, on opposite sides of the belt. I buckle up the knives to my suit and scavenge the area for more knives.  
There's another set of knives, clinging on to a sash. The sash looks like it can stick onto me so the knives and stuff won't fall, so I put it on. An attacker comes running at me with a metallic object, then stops.

"Oh, hey Caia!" The attacker says cheerfully. I notice her face. It's Shimmer from District One. She's holding the metallic object in her hands, then drops it.  
"Oh! There's my weapon." Shimmer tackles someone holding a bow. She punches the guy and takes his bow and arrows.  
"I'll take that, thanks." Shimmer smiles at the guy. She grabs a sharp weapon from her right, locks him in position, and stabs him to death. I widen my eyes.  
"Shimmer, when did you turn deadly?" I ask, dodging multiple attacks from someone. I grab a knife from my sash and fling it at her. She drops to the ground, clutching her neck. I remove the knife and wipe off the blood with my sleeve.  
"When I watched Gorden in the training center." She answers.  
"Speaking of Gorden, where is he?"  
I see him. He's already killing more tributes and accompanying Justane. As a Career, we wait until the bloodbath is over, then we go. All the other tributes who aren't on the island are trying to keep afloat or trapped on their metal plate. Justane and Gorden have finished killing, and there's no one else on the island. We group up and get all of the useful items, and try to strap them in with our weapons. I pick up some food, matches, a bag, and a waterproof sleeping bag. These items actually fit in my bag, so I brought them along.

Then we go over to the edge of the island, and start swimming toward an island.  
Once we reach there, the sun is already setting, so we make camp near the shore.  
"I'll watch over when we go to sleep." Gorden says. We agree and Shimmer hands over a flashlight to him.  
"Okay." Shimmer says. Justane and I try to start a fire with some leaves, branches and matches. It works, and we're all warm now.  
"Shimmer, Gorden, stay guard. Caia and I will hunt for some food to eat. We wouldn't want to waste some of our precious food." Justane says. He sounds like the boss.  
"OK." Gorden says. Justane and I bring our weapons and go into the forest part of our small island.

I hear bird sounds, and look up. Brown birds are looking at us, with sharp beaks.  
"What are those..?" I ask Justane. I look over to his direction and see that he's gone.  
"JUSTANE!" I scream, cutting the leaves and branches aside. I run back to camp.

"Justane's g-" My voice is cut off by the sight of Justane sitting with Shimmer and Gorden, all eating something.  
"What are you eating?" I ask. My eyes are all teary and my voice sounds hoarse.  
"Bird." Justane answers. I try to relax, and sit down. They hand me a piece and I eat it, to the bone.  
"Haha.. This is yummy." I say, trying to sound brave.

The night is still, and sounds of animals echo around the island.  
Then the anthem sounds. We're all looking up and smiling at the dead tributes we've killed.  
**Dead Tributes:**  
**Hayden Kikkel District 5 boy (stabbed to death/Cornucopia)**  
**Jamade Sieldferg District 5 girl (poisoned)**  
**Gerard Jingerteddis District 6 boy (killed by a giant beast)**  
**Dina Quenter District 6 girl (eaten by a giant beast)  
Monoke Nethersa District 7 girl (stabbed/Cornucopia)**  
**Finn Brookers District 8 boy (fatal wound/Cornucopia)**  
**Bernard Sevangel District 9 boy (killed by an arrow)**

The sky goes dark and the music finishes.

"That means everyone in 10, 11 and 12 is alive." I point out.  
Gorden stays guard and we all go to sleep.

Then morning comes. We're all alarmed by a flock of those brown birds that I saw yesterday. They all surround us, on the ground and in the trees behind us. Their sharp beaks shine polished in the morning sun, and they look ready to attack.  
"Those birds-" I whisper. Shimmer, Justane and Gorden listen to me.  
"They look like they're ready to kill. I saw them yesterday.." I finish.  
"We have to run, and swim over to another island." I say, trying to make my way to the beach's watery edge without frightening to birds. Everyone follows me, silently crawling over the sand. I grab my sleeping bag and roll it up quickly, and stuff it into my bag. I count my knives, and slip over to the edge. Gorden makes quite a racket when folding his sleeping bag, and that makes the birds furious.  
"NO!" Gorden shouts. The birds are flapping around us now, trying to kill us.  
"We have to make it out!" I say, screaming.


	2. The Island Birds

There's a flurry of brown in my eyes, as I stumble into the water. Gorden's shouting for help, but we can't save him. Not now. Justane, Shimmer and I submerge ourselves into the water, hoping this would drive away the birds. The birds can't see us now, so they fly away, back into the forest.  
We float back up and run over to Gorden, who's lying helpless on the shore.  
"As Careers, you have to win this, for our Districts." He whispers to us. Our eyes start watering.  
"No.. We can't do it without you! We need you, Gorden!" Shimmer says, wiping away her tears.  
"Yeah, we need you!" Justane and I say. Gorden's wounds look pretty fatal, with stabs and cuts in his temple, calf, and where his heart is supposed to be. The sight's grueling, blood everywhere.  
"Tell Marvel- my cousin, I said goodbye."  
Gorden shuts his eyes and the cannon sounds. We all burst out crying.  
"WAKE UP! GORDEN! WAKE UP!" Shimmer shakes Gorden's dead body.  
A hovercraft materializes over us, and a metal claw drops down to pick up Gorden's body.  
"GORDEN! NO!" We scream.  
But the hovercraft has taken away Gorden.  
"Why.." I say, barely holding back tears. "WHY?!" I scream and throw sand everywhere. I knew Gorden well. He was a nice, friendly but brutal guy.  
"The Hunger Games did this." Justane says glumly.  
"But-" Justane stops me.  
"It's just life. That was his fate. We have to move on now." He says. I nod and so does Shimmer. Shimmer and I hold hands, and swim toward a new island, not knowing what awaits there.

Two girls, two deaths. This was my turn to kill, so I pick two long knives and stab them in their backs. Two cannons fire and we set off to another island.

We decide to camp on that island. We set up our sleeping bags and stuff, and make a fire. Anyone would see the fire and come over, thus making an easy kill. Shimmer's guarding today.  
"Let's eat." I say, and pull out 3 bird meats from my bag. We roast them on the fire and eat them. The meat is juicy, and it have a vaguely familiar taste. I sit there trying to remember, when it comes to me.  
"CHICKEN!" I stand up for no reason at all. Shimmer and Justane look surprised.  
"What?" Shimmer asks.  
"The bird tastes like chicken." I walk over to a nearby tree and carve a target in it.  
"I'm going to practice my throwing." I say. I stand a few meters back and aim with my knife. I jerk my hand forward and the knife goes flying, flying. Then it hits the bulls eye. I try a few more, and no matter my stance, I get a bulls eye.  
I pull out a water bottle from my bag and look inside. The Game Makers decided to be nice and put water in. I gulp a quarter of the water and put it back in my bag.  
"Nice." Justane says.  
"Thanks." I hold out a knife and throw it right above his head teasingly.  
"Oops, sorry." I say sarcastically.  
The night comes again, and the deaths show up.  
**Deaths:  
****Gorden Strongarm District One boy (killer birds attacked)**  
**Case Fernasee District Eight girl (stabbed with knife**)  
**Hawque May District 10 girl (stabbed with knife)**

Morning will come, and so will tomorrow. A new day will begin, with more tributes dead.  
We go to sleep with Shimmer as our guard.


	3. Beast

"Let's go explore." Shimmer says. It's afternoon now, and boredom has taken over my body.  
"You can go." I say.  
"Okay, I'll come back later." Shimmer says. Justane's still sleeping, so I put a light leaf over his nose.  
"Smell it." I whisper. Justane wakes up.  
"Very funny." He says. We both hear a growl and screaming at the same time. Then we both realize it's Shimmer's voice.  
"SHIMMER!" I call out. No answer. Then I hear some moaning on my left.  
"Shimmer?" I say. I go to the direction of the moan and see Shimmer. Justane follows me and we both look horrified.  
Shimmer's body lays on the dirt, moans escaping every once in a while. There's deep scratches in her temple and we know we can't save her. The least I can do is hold her hand.  
"I'm.. Dying." Shimmer whispers.  
"Tell Glimmer, I tried my best. Glimmer's my cousin, and my best friend." She finishes. The cannon blows and the grip on my hand releases slowly.  
"Sh-sh-Shimmer?" I say. No answers come, I'm talking to a lifeless body.  
"SHIMMER!" I scream. Justane sits quietly, not letting out a word. Silently breathing.  
"Get over it, this is the Hunger Games Caia. Everyone gets killed but one remains." Justane says. I come to sit with him, and he hugs me.  
"Don't worry, I'll protect you." He says. I cannot think that was the truth; I could only think of it as a lie. He can't protect me if he's dead. No one could.

I could think of 10 reasons how Justane can't protect me:

1. He would be busy killing  
2. I can probably protect myself  
3. He'd be too busy mourning Shimmer's death  
4. He wants me to die  
5. He never keeps his word  
6. He lies  
7. Tries to comfort me with soothing words that aren't true  
8. He's ruthless  
9. He doesn't care about anyone but a few people  
10. He's very selfish

Ten reasons, done.

Lies, lies. I hate it.

"Twenty dead, four left to go. I wonder who's going to be the Victor this year." Justane says. I keep silent and mourn Shimmer's death. She was a cheerful girl.

I feel the ground shaking. A wall of red comes from behind, and I'm realizing the arena's being shrunk. Justane looks at me, and we both know what to do. Swim, toward the Cornucopia. Maybe my last battle is going to start there. Maybe my death awaits.


	4. Death

We haul ourselves into the Cornucopia island and rest on the grass. 2 tributes come out of nowhere and start attackin

g us. I tackle a girl down and pin her down with my knees.

"Well look at you. Where's your District partner?" I stop to look at her District number.

"Three?" I say mockingly.

"He's dead." Fury escapes her eyes.

"Who told you to speak?" I ask, and dig a knife into her arm. I pull out a long knife and stab her heart. The cannon sounds and there's no helping her now.

I feel my self get lifted into the air. I'm leaning against the Cornucopia now. I see a boy holding a dagger to my throat.

"DIE!" He says, and drives it into my throat. I see flashes of white. I know I'm dying. White fills my eyes and I hear muffled shouts. Then silence. I'm dead now, and there's no coming back.


End file.
